Letters: Taxpayer has a right to know if the tram project is on track

What happened to the 2011 promise (the date on which the trams were originally promised)?

Cllr Mackenzie also seems to criticise "misinformed speculation" regarding the progress and cost of the project.

If he has the actual figures why does he not inform the public instead of the council and TIE continually hiding behind the statement "we cannot disclose that information due to commercial confidentiality"?

Surely the public are entitled to the courtesy of being informed of the actual cost and final completion date.

Who is going to be dismissed/removed from their posts when the deadline dates are missed and the construction budgets are exceeded?

At what point do the powers that be who are spending public money become accountable? The public are entitled to be factually and accurately informed on how their money is being spent.

Perhaps the real reason why Cllr Mackenzie and the other officials within the council and TIE are so reluctant to reveal costs and dates is the fact that they simply do not know!

Grant Kavanagh, Leith Walk, Edinburgh

Cyclists asking for trouble near bridge

WHILST I have every sympathy with Mr Scullion and the unfortunate incident that he was involved in (White van man didn't even notice he'd hit me, News 26 January), I would like to point out to cyclists that the A90 after Barnton heading towards the Forth Road Bridge and also in the opposite direction from the bridge to Barnton is out of bounds to cyclists and is indicated quite clearly with large yellow signs.

Despite this I regularly see cyclists on this stretch of road and they are only asking for trouble.

Mr Alastair Macintyre, Webster Place, Rosyth

Pricing people out is not the solution

IN THE 1990s our council used to have different rates for our leisure centres. In the mornings anyone could go in and use the council facilities for a reduced rate.

Council-run facilities were never full of people in the morning and the reduced rate let the unemployed, pensioners, retired and other groups of people use these facilities to keep themselves fit.

The council stopped the reduced morning rate and started charging a higher price all day – doubling some of the prices that they were charging.

Many of the people who were using these facilities at the time stopped going to the Commonwealth Pool, Meadowbank and other council facilities in the mornings because they were on fixed incomes and the council price rise had priced them out of the facilities that they were using – hotel leisure centres had become cheaper than our own council leisure facilities.

It now looks like the same is happening again (Low leisure fees axed 'to avoid confusion', News 26 January).

Since the 1990s the prices for council leisure centres have changed a lot, but are they not making the same mistakes that they made then? How can anyone justify these rises in the guise of making pricing easier to understand?

These price rises will hit the unemployed, pensioners, medically retired and other groups of people who are using these facilities.

And will this not price people out of these facilities at a time when our council needs every penny it can get, even if it is from reduced rate pricing?

Andrew Murphy, Royal Mile, Edinburgh

Thirsty trawlermen brew it their way

RANDALL McLean is correct in saying alcohol is somewhat more difficult to obtain in Norway (Letters, 22 January).

A very good thing too, if they can avoid the problems we in Scotland have with booze.

One wonders, though, how widespread the custom of brewing your own is in Norway.

My cousin is married to a Norwegian trawlerman and has lived over there for decades.

Her husband and his fellow workers and circle of friends brew their own drink and have done for many years – mighty powerful stuff it is too, apparently!

C Robertson, Montgomery Street, Edinburgh

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